Will this popular Gables beer hall have a World Cup watch party? There’s a problem
The owners of the beloved German beer hall Fritz & Franz Bierhaus are accusing the city of Coral Gables of trying to stop their highly anticipated World Cup viewing events from happening this summer by charging them $70,000 for police and fire presence.
In a Facebook post last week, the popular restaurant and bar expressed its frustrations about the situation. Fritz & Franz had originally proposed to set up tents, tables, speakers and a screen on the public plaza outside its restaurant at 60 Merrick Way to host watch parties for 25 games during the nearly six-week tournament this summer.
The restaurant owners wanted to keep the event set up within the public Bierhaus Plaza throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup, instead of removing and reinstalling equipment daily.
Now, they’ve shortened the time frame and plan to ask commissioners on Tuesday to give them the green light to transform the public plaza into a soccer watch party viewing area for three weeks, from June 28 through July 19, during select matches, similar to what was done for previous events.
“’[W]e have downsized to 20 days for World Cup Public viewing events on the Plaza. Now the city tells us Police fee has almost doubled” and is also requiring fire-rescue presence for the first time in over two decades, Fritz & Franz said in the Facebook post. Another post explained that the city considers the viewing events to be a “high impact event” that will affect operations throughout the city, a designation the restaurant says it’s never received before throughout its years of hosting watch parties.
This isn’t the first time the restaurant has been at odds with the city, which owns the building. In 2024, Fritz & Franz was at risk of losing its lease with the Gables, but the City Commission at the time eventually agreed to renew the lease after the business agreed to pay more for its prime location.
In its Facebook post, the restaurant suggested the recent dispute with the city over World Cup programming was a continuation of the previous disagreement.
“I think the city is not giving up until I am gone ... They tried 2 years ago and now they are trying this way!” reads the Facebook post. “They killed the Bluefest, Live Music on the Plaza and Oktoberfest! Now they are working on the Public viewing events for World Cup, Euro and Copa Events!”
Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens is set to host seven matches for the 2026 World Cup, which is expected to draw thousands of people to South Florida. Coral Gables police, like other police departments, have been preparing for the influx of visitors.
Longtime Fritz & Franz owners Harald and James Neuweg on Tuesday will present to the Coral Gables City Commission a smaller-scale version of their original viewing event plans for some of South Florida’s most anticipated soccer games of the year. Fritz & Franz’s proposal has to go before the commission for approval because it falls outside the city’s existing special event guidelines, according to the city’s community recreation director, Fred Couceyro.
Mayor Vince Lago, with the support of Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara, earlier this month shut down the Neuwegs’ original proposal and asked the restaurant to come back with an alternate plan for a shorter time span.
Lago said in the May 5 meeting that while he understands the events are, in the owners’ own words, like “Christmas” for the longtime Gables staple and will bring the business a lot of money, he couldn’t support the proposal because it would be too many weeks of traffic changes and elevated noise for people who live and work in the area. He noted that the city has previously received noise concerns related to Fritz & Franz’s popular festival-style events. Lago asked Harald Neuweg to bring another proposal to the next meeting.
“We need to understand this is a public plaza. ... For me to vote yes, we need to put some serious guardrails,” Lago said, explaining that he can’t vote yes until he sees a “detailed plan” that addresses safety, cleanliness, traffic and noise control for the private event.
“I don’t want people to be deterred for six weeks to come to our downtown because they don’t want to be part of the mayhem that happens here during that time,” Lago added, saying that the city also needs to think about the “qualify of life” of the people who live in the area.
Like is common in meetings, his stance was at odds with Commissioner Melissa Castro, who supported the restaurant owners’ original plan and rebuked the mayor’s concern, stating that she believed the watch parties would help draw customers to other local businesses in the city and help bring in parking revenue.
Anderson floated the idea of potentially hosting the watch party at Ponce Circle Park instead, similar to how the city held a watch party earlier this year for the highly anticipated University of Miami college football national championship game against the Indiana Hoosiers. Couceyro indicated that while it was possible to host a game for the finale, it’s not likely to host frequent watch parties at the park due to the cost and logistics.
On Tuesday, the commission will be presented with Fritz & Franz’s alternate three-week-long soccer watch party plan. If approved, Fritz & Franz would need to hire police and be responsible for all other costs associated with the event, including equipment, permits and other services.
A memo related to the proposal indicates that the proposed soccer watch party “is expected to have a positive business impact by increasing foot traffic and activity in the downtown area during the 2026 FIFA World Cup period,” including supporting nearby restaurants and shops and enhancing “the City’s ability to attract visitors during a globally recognized event.”
